fbpx

News

Report: Iranian opposition claims Tehran has secret enrichment facility

[ssba]

According to AFP, an Iranian opposition group has claimed that the Tehran regime is flouting agreements with the international community by illicitly engaging in nuclear research and development at a hidden facility.

The group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is an umbrella body of five individual groups. The organisation’s deputy director, Alireza Jafarzadeh, presented satellite images and said its claims were corroborated by “intelligence from highly placed sources within the Iranian regime as well as those involved in the nuclear weapons projects.”

Jafarzadeh said, “Despite the Iranian regime’s claims that all of its enrichment activities are transparent … it has in fact been engaged in research and development with advanced centrifuges at a secret nuclear site called Lavizan-3.” The site, Jafarzadeh explained, is located at a military base in Tehran’s suburbs and that, “Since 2008, the Iranian regime has secretly engaged in research and uranium enrichment with advanced … centrifuge machines at this site.” Jafarzadeh said the information has been shared with US authorities.

Such a development would be a clear violation of the interim agreement between Iran and the P5+1 powers (US, UK, Russia, France, China and Germany) signed in November 2013. However, Iran has previously concealed its atomic development, only disclosing the existence of the Fordow plant in 2009 after learning that Western intelligence services had detected it.

The NCRI claims come as Iran and the P5+1 appear to be edging towards a long-term agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme. Reports earlier this week indicated that the nascent agreement would restrict Iran’s enrichment capability for 10 years, with little contingency thereafter. Yesterday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his staunch opposition to the proposed deal, saying that it would show that the world has “given up” on preventing Iran’s nuclear armament.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard yesterday conducted an elaborate televised live fire naval drill in which its forces destroyed a mock American aircraft carrier.